1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an SNS (social network service) system which performs an image processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a members-only communication service (social network system, hereinafter referred to as SNS) has been gaining in popularity. In general, the SNS system is constructed not by a tree structure but by a semi-lattice structure. In the semi-lattice structure, unlike a tree structure in which all lower-level sets are included in an upper-level set, a structural element of one set is included in a plurality of lower-level sets, and sets with interlaced inclusive relations are constituted.
In the SNS system, there is a concept of “friends” (see, e.g. Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-309660), and “friends” are one of sets.
For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a friend network in a case where attention is paid to member “A”. Member “B” (hereinafter the word “member” is omitted, and simply “A”, “B”, . . . , are referred to), “C” and “D” have a friendship, “B1” and “B2” have a friendship with “B”, and “B11” and “B12” have a friendship with “B1”. Further, “D1” has a friendship with “D”, and “D11” and “D12” have a friendship with “D1”.
As indicated by “r1” in FIG. 1, there may be a case in which friend “D12” of friend “D1” of “D”, that is a friend of “A”, has a friendship with “A”.
In the meantime, in such an SNS, there are many cases in which members show photos, which are stored on a server, to each other (see, e.g. Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2008-242639).
In the description below, a member uploads a photo to a server, and the photo itself, which is made public on the Internet as such, or an image, which is created by subjecting the photo to image processing and is made public on the Internet, is referred to as “work”.
A member prepares, in his/her own home page (also referred to as “my page”), a top screen having his/her own top image. The top screen is a so-called home screen.
In the SNS system, a picture conversion service for image data is provided as an image processing. Thus, there are many members who adopt images which are created by subjecting the top images to the picture conversion. There are many types of picture conversion, such as an oil painting, thick oil painting, gothic oil painting, fauvist oil painting, water color painting, gouache painting, pastel painting, color pencil sketch, pointillism, silkscreen, drawing, and air brush. For example, if a color pencil sketch type is used for picture conversion of a member's own top image, it is highly possible that this member likes the type of color pencil sketch tone, and it can be supposed that this member will have a friendship with a member who likewise adopts the color pencil sketch tone for picture conversion of the top image, and it is considered that these members will make a group.
FIG. 2 illustrates an example in which members, including members who have no friendship, are grouped. Symbol “g1” denotes a group which is a set having a predetermined objective. The group “g1” includes members, such as “A” and “F”, who have no friendship.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-99753, discloses a grouping technique in the SNS. Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-99753 provides a grouping method of names and keywords, which is characterized by including a step of accepting an input from an input module of names and keywords, a step of producing a cooccurrence matrix of the input names and keywords, and a step of clustering the names and keywords in the produced cooccurrence matrix.
In the prior art, however, an SNS relating to a picture conversion technology and a technique relating to such an SNS have not been proposed. In Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-99753, based on a personal name or company name, a product name, a document name, etc., that is, based on text data, grouping is executed by language processing or syntax analysis. In Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-99753, there is no concept of executing grouping based on image data. Thus, in the actual situation, it has not been practiced to increase an interest by merging a picture conversion technology into an SNS or, conversely, by merging an SNS into a picture conversion technology.